Greeks and Romans
by Morwen Tindomerel
Summary: While the Seven are off on the Argo II saving the world the Half-Bloods left at home have to hold the fort against whatever Gaea throws at them. As a sign of their new alliance the Fourth Cohort comes to Camp Half-Blood.
1. Chapter 1

Kelly halted the cohort on the lee side of the hill with the pine tree to dress the line and make a quick inspection of armor and gear; these sloppy Greeks were going to see what a _real_ military force looked like! The marching column was four across, each file consisting of one centuria headed by its decuranus carrying the standard followed by a legionary with the banner. At the front of the column Kelly was flanked by the cohort standard and banner carried by two picked legionaries with her three centurions in a row behind her. Once she was satisfied with the looks of her command Kelly led them in a wide circle around the base of the hill, well clear of the dragon coiled sleepily around the foot of the tree. Percy had said that it would ignore them unless they tried to touch the Fleece but Kelly didn't feel like trying her luck – she preferred to save it for dealing with the Greeks.

A valley cradled by wooded hills opened before them, much smaller than the valley of New Rome. There was no city and no military camp but Greek style buildings of white marble gleamed here and there with a cluster of extremely strange looking buildings near a lake fed by a river flowing down from the hills and through it to empty into the Long Island sound. Yeah, Percy had said they had a beach. He'd also mentioned the forest, big, dense and dark, taking up maybe a third of the valley. Stocked with monsters he'd said, that should be fun anyway. Gravel crunched underfoot as they marched down a track that didn't deserve the name of road to form up in front of the big blue house with wrap around porches and four floors of windows glaring down at them.

Kelly shivered fighting down the urge to order an assault, or maybe a retreat. Jason had warned her about that; the sense of being on enemy ground was almost overwhelming for all they were invited guests. A bunch of kids and fauns, all wearing orange t-shirts, abruptly lost interest in their volleyball game and moved closer staring at the legionaries. Kelly was careful to ignore them as she climbed the steps of the porch to knock at the front door of the Big House. Had Percy felt anywhere near this threatened at Camp Jupiter?

Nobody answered the door. Kelly was about to knock again when the clickity-clack of hooves sounded from the far end of the building. The next second a centaur came around the corner. He had the lower body of a white stallion and his human half was wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the words; 'World's Best Centaur'. Kelly forced herself to let go of her sword hilt. This was Chiron, a completely different brand of centaur from the ones they'd fought.

He came to a full stop several feet away from her, and cleared his throat, obviously none too comfortable himself; "Ah-hem."

Kelly saluted smartly. "Master Chiron? Second Tribune Kelly Martinia Everes and the Fourth Cohort of the XIIth Fulminata, you've been expecting us."

"Ah, yes. Indeed." His eye fell to the sword at her side and blinked. "Dear me, isn't that –"

"Gorgophone? Yes sir it is." Kelly drew the ancient blade of Perseus and showed it to him. "I'm a Perseid, sir, on my mother's side, as well as a legacy of Mars." That was a big reason why she and the Fourth had drawn this assignment. Percy and Jason had hoped her Greek descent would help her feel more at home at Camp Half-Blood – too bad they'd been wrong about that. "Where would you like us to set up tents, sir?"

Chiron looked about as uncomfortable as Kelly felt. "Follow me please."

The Fourth marched past the volleyball court across a wooden foot bridge and into what clearly passed for a forum in this camp – or maybe that should be 'agora' seeing as these were Greeks. There didn't seem to be any shops or snack bars just a gaggle of the strangest looking barracks Kelly had ever seen and, at the far end, a pair of small temples. The lightning bolts on the bronze doors of one and peacocks and pomegranates carved into the frieze of the other made it clear which gods they belonged to.

Kelly kissed her hand and murmured; "_Ave Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Ave Juno Moneta."_ Behind her the rest of the cohort followed suit except for the standard bearers who couldn't spare a hand. They passed between the temple of Juno and a barracks with a grass roof into an open field with the lake to the east and a roofless circle of tall white columns crowning a low hill due north.

"I thought here," Chiron said. "As you can see it's convenient to both the showers and the mess hall. It should be large enough…"

Kelly measured the space with her eye and nodded, "Plenty of room thank you, sir."

….

The engineers marked out the limits of the camp on the green grass then stood back. Pompey Liberanus, Kelly's senior decuranus, closed his eyes in concentration. He stretched out his arms in front of him palms together, then slowly drew them apart. The turf inside the square drawn by the engineers split down the middle then rolled back like a carpet baring the brown earth and everybody else sprang into action; two legionaries from each centuria set to work putting up the tents while the rest pulled off their mail shirts, hung them and their helmets on their spears and started to dig. Twenty minutes later Pompey rolled the grass back down into the five foot deep ditch defining the limit of the camp and up over the five foot high earthen wall behind it. Inside four neat squares of two man pup-tents were divided by wide dirt roads running from gate to gate, front to back and side to side, with the big _principia_ tent at the crossroads in the middle flanked by officers' quarters. Looking over the camp's rampart Kelly saw they'd collected quite a crowd of orange t-shirted kids, most with their mouths hanging open, and grinned. Take _that_ you sloppy Greeks!

The crowd shifted as a tall athletic girl shoved kids out of her way making for the praetoriangate. Kelly walked down the steps cut in the obverse face of the earth wall arriving at almost exactly the same moment as the other girl.

She was tall with brown hair tied back by a red bandana. The stark planes of her face, handsome rather than beautiful, and the reddish tinge to her eyes told Kelly exactly who this girl's godly parent had to be. And sure enough: "Clarisse LaRue, daughter of Ares."

"Kelly Martinia Everes, legacy of Mars," she responded shaking the proffered hand, "Which makes us relatives I guess."

Clarisse looked around, impressed but trying not to show it. "Planning on sitting out a siege?"

"Digging in is SOP," Kelly explained. "You know how it is, the one time you _don't_ entrench is always the one time you really should have."

Clarisse nodded. Of course she understood. "Chiron sent me to show you around."

"Thanks, we could do with a quick orientation." Kelly raised her voice to a bellow; "Officer's call! the_ Porta praetoria_!"

Exactly five seconds later the two of them were surrounded by the officers of the Fourth. "Centurions with me," Kelly said crisply. "Pompey you're in command; assemble for orders and announcements at Sext." He snapped a salute and the decurani faded away leaving the three centurions. "Clarisse LaRue, my officers: Vicki Doolittle, daughter of Victory. Felix Silano, son of Fortuna. Cara Lightfoot, daughter of Vortumnus."

"Uh, hello," the daughter of Ares said awkwardly. "Um… let's start with the cabins."

…..

"So, um, these are the cabins, gods on the right, goddesses on the left." Clarisse said with a vague wave round the agora.

"Percy said you split campers up according to their godly parent," Kelly said. "Doesn't that make for uneven distribution?"

"Oh yeah," Clarisse shrugged. "Some cabins like Hermes or Apollo or even my dad Ares have up to twenty campers. Others like Hades have only one and some, like Zeus's, are empty." She looked at the Romans curiously. "I'm guessing that's not the way you do it?"

"No. Legionaries are assigned to cohort and centuria depending on where there's an opening," Kelly answered skipping over the politics involved. "You don't have legacies here do you?"

Clarisse looked puzzled. "What?"

"Descendants of demi-gods," Kelly explained. "Like me. My grandfather was a son of Mars and I'm also a legacy of Jupiter through my descent from Perseus."

"We only have first generation half-bloods here," Clarisse answered frowning. "The gods don't have DNA you know. We've always figured that our kids, if we had any, would be normal."

"Maybe they are," Vicki said, thinking visibly. "I mean the Perseids and Heraclids are sort of special cases aren't they? Jupiter – or Zeus - gave them particular gifts. Same deal with Neptune and Frank Zhang's family from what he said."

"Yeah, but DNA or no grandchildren and even more distant descendants of the Roman gods aren't normal," Kelly argued. "I mean look at me, I've got Martian powers and I'm his great granddaughter. And Pompey's got Cererian powers just like his dad."

"Maybe our gods play by different rules," Felix said thoughtfully. "I mean they _are_ different in their Roman forms from the Greek – according to Jason and Percy anyway. So far they're the only ones to see both."

"More than half the legion is legacies," Cara put in. "And some of us are both. I mean my mom is a legacy of Mercury but my father is one of the minor Roman gods. I don't think he has a Greek form."

"A lot of us are descended from more than one god," Kelly agreed, laughed. "I've got a friend who's got most of the pantheon in her family tree."

"That doesn't happen here," Clarisse said, "at least I don't think it does." She gave her head a shake, dismissing the subject. "How about I show you the arena?"

The arena was cool and so was the chariot track but the armory was _amazing_. The Romans could barely tear themselves away. Clarisse also explained about 'capture the flag', the Greek version of war games, and that monster hunting in the forest was positively encouraged.

"Wow," Vicki said more than a little enviously. "Lucky you, we don't have anything like that in New Rome."

Kelly however had noticed a fairly disturbing lack; "Where are your temples?"

Clarisse rolled her eyes. "You've been talking to Annabeth haven't you? She's drawn up blue-prints and everything but Chiron says we just can't afford it especially with all of the new cabins.

Kelly had not in fact been talking to Annabeth Chase about temples or anything else. "So – no temples?"

"We've gotten along fine without one this long," said Clarisse.

The Romans exchanged looks. "You mean you don't make sacrifices?" Kelly asked finding that very hard to believe.

"Sure we do, at every meal."

The centurions all looked at their tribune. Kelly was a priest after all, the priest of Mars. "Will that be all right?" Cara wondered, frowning.

Kelly thought about it and nodded. "Yeah, I think so. When in the Greek camp do as the Greeks do. I mean the priests will still be fulfilling the terms of our contracts back home."

"Your _what_?" Now it was Clarisse looking incredulous.

"Our contractual obligations to our gods," Kelly explained, "established by Romulus back at the beginning of Rome."

"You got _contracts_ with the gods?"

"You don't?"

"Heck no!"

It was hard to say who was the most astounded.

"Well…you're Greeks after all." Kelly said at last. "Romans are different. We're very legal minded. We like things all written out and signed."

"Different," Clarisse agreed, "_very_ different."

"I really hate to bring this up," Felix said. "But I think our fearless leader has missed an even more important lack here. I haven't seen any coffee shops."

"We've got a camp store in the Big House," Clarisse answered. "They don't sell coffee though."

"Okay – panic time!" said Felix.

"_Not_ good!" Vicki agreed. Cara just hugged herself looking horrified.

"You gotta understand," Kelly explained to a bewildered Clarisse. "The legion _runs_ on coffee. We can't live without it."

"You can get whatever you want to drink at meals no problem." The Greek girl answered, trying to sound reassuring.

"Problem! What about _between _meals?" Felix all but wailed.

Clarisse was stymied. "Okay. We'll talk to Chiron. I'm sure he can get you some if it's that important."

"Trust me," Kelly said. "It is. The last thing we need is a cohort of caffeine starved legionaries!"


	2. Chapter 2

"- Master Chiron fully understands the urgency of the matter and will personally see to it that an abundant supply of ground coffee is delivered for our use daily." Kelly informed her assembled cohort shortly before noon. A legionary stepped out of formation and struck his shield for attention. "Marcus Antonius Verus?"

"What _kind _of coffee?"

Naturally Kelly comprehended the importance of the question; "A wide variety, Legionary, everything from xxx-bold to de-caf - suitable to all needs."

A general sigh of relief rippled through the ranks.

"As for religious observances," Kelly resumed. "While we are stationed at Camp Half-Blood we will follow the custom of the place which is to dedicate a portion of your food to the deity of your choice at every meal. I am quite sure that will be acceptable to the gods -" The cohort's vestal stepped out of line and beat her shield. "Yes, Valentina Veneria Vestalis?"

"I have, of course, brought with me a good supply of _mola salsa_," she said, "but not enough for each legionary to make three sacrifices a day!"

"That won't be necessary," Kelly answered. "We will limit the use of _mola salsa _to the regular weekly and monthly sacrifices which you and I will handle as usual."

Valentine nodded acceptance and stepped back into the ranks.

Kelly turned to her chief decuranus. "Have you anything to add, Pompey Liberanus?"

He grimaced. "I have inspected the bathing arrangements and personally I'd rather use the lake. But the facilities are at least _clean_ now and if you're willing to settle for a shower bath they'll do."

"No tubs?" Kelly asked.

"No tubs," he answered – and she wasn't the only member of the cohort to wince; "Request permission to build a _sudatorium_ by the lake."

Permission granted," Kelly said immediately. "I think we'll be here long enough to justify the investment."

…

The youngsters of Camp Half-Blood messed in a roofless pavilion ringed by tall Corinthian columns with fine views of the valley and adjacent sea shore. Two dozen tables covered with purple edged cloths and flanked by stone benches were set in concentric circles around a fire burning in a huge bright bronze brazier. Master Chiron conducted the Fourth to a pair of tables in the outer ring large enough to seat them all.

The kids staring at them from the other tables weren't all that different from the demi-gods of Camp Jupiter except for the orange t-shirts. And the shaggy hair, and the un-regulation jewelry, and the bad posture and…okay, maybe they _weren't_ much like Roman campers even if they were half-bloods too. And there were fauns sitting at some of the tables, right alongside the campers, which was _really_ different.

Chiron took his place standing at the head of one of the tables in the inner circle and stamped a hoof on the marble pavement for attention. A ragged silence fell and he raised his glass; "To the gods!"

"To the gods!" everybody echoed, including the Fourth.

Then girls in fluttery green dresses with leaves caught in their hair appeared, circulating among the tables with big platters of barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs with all the fixings for same, a variety of pizzas, and a wide variety of fruit. The Roman contingent exchanged covert looks of relief. At least the food looked good. Platters were passed and plates filled.

Looking around Kelly couldn't see any particular order to the lines of campers threading their way between tables to drop their offering into the fire so she just picked up her plate and went.

"Mars Pater," she murmured, kissed her hand and dropped a cheeseburger into the fire.

Back at her table she gave her empty glass a thoughtful look then shrugged. "Bombilo's Cinnamon Cappuccino." Instantly the glass was full of creamy brown liquid topped by velvety foam sprinkled with reddish grains. Kelly took a cautious sip and her eyebrows shot up. Wow! If this wasn't genuine Bombilo brew it was the next thing to!

"Pretty good, huh?" Romilla, the Fourth's decuranus of Engineers, plopped down a glass of her usual latte and wedged herself in between Kelly and Pompey.

"This place has just gotten a whole lot more bearable." Pompey agreed.

"Are the showers really that bad?" Kelly asked over Romilla's head.

He shrugged. "Better, now that they've had a good scrubbing, but definitely not a place to linger if you get my meaning."

Kelly did. Baths were a favorite hangout for Romans. "A _sudatorium_'s vital then. The last thing we need is tense legionaries."

"Amen," said Romillia. "About that – do we need to get permission from Master Chiron?"

"It would be diplomatic to ask," Kelly answered. "But I don't foresee any difficulties there. He was very cooperative about the coffee."

"Smart man – uh centaur," said Pompey.

"Er, Tribune Everes?"

Kelly twisted around and sure enough there was Chiron right behind her as if he'd been conjured by his name, one hand resting on Marc Verus' broad shoulder. She sighed; "What have you done now?"

"Nothing!" her least favorite legionary said defensively. "I just wanted to say hello to my Greek relatives."

"I'm sure Marc meant no harm," the centaur added quickly. "But visiting between tables is not allowed."

Every Roman within hearing stopped eating and stared. The mess hall was one of the few places where the legion's iron discipline relaxed. Table hopping was a way of life!

Kelly found her voice. "Of course we'll follow your rules while we're here, Master Chiron."

"Thank you," the centaur rummaged in the pocket of the tweed jacket he was wearing over his 'World's Best Centaur' t-shirt. "Er, here's a schedule of camp activities. Your – ah – legionaries are more than welcome to avail themselves of our facilities."

"Thank you, sir. Sit down and finish your lunch, Marc." Kelly looked at the sheet of paper in her hands:

08:00-09:00 Breakfast and cabin inspection

09:00-10:30 First Activity Period: Classes - Greek language, Mythology, History; Chores - Lunch Preparation, Store checks, Cleaning Stables, Picking Strawberries, Polishing armor

10:30-12:00 Second Activity Period: Training - Archery, Javelin throwing, Sword skills, Monster assault techniques, Pegasus riding

12:00-1:00 Lunch

1:00-3:30 Third Activity Period: Further training OR Weapon-making, Ride the rapids, Tracking skills, Wrestling, Volleyball

3:30-5:00 Fourth Activity Period: Further training/Classes/Chores

5:00-6:00 Free Time: Letters Home, Cabin clean-up, Laundry, etc.

6:00-7:00 Dinner

7:00-9:00+ Activities: Volleyball league, Un-armed combat, Archery knockout, Trials of strength, Campfire singalong. On Fridays Capture the Flag.

10:00 Lights out.

"You keep late hours here," Kelly commented. Chiron blinked. "Never mind, we'll adjust. Otherwise it's not that different from a standard legion schedule."

"Except no sentry duty," Romilla remarked peering over Kelly's shoulder.

"And we don't pick strawberries," Marc added, craning his neck to read upside down. "Hey, wrestling!"

"Marc's legion champion," Kelly explained – a fact that had saved his life after more than one prank. "I've been thinking, Master Chiron, that we need to do some military exercises with your people. Our fighting styles are very different and co-ordination might be a problem."

"Mm..yes. I see. Well Clarisse and Malcolm are definitely the counselors you should talk to – after lunch of course."

…..

Malcolm son of Athena proved to be a classically good looking dark blond boy with, of course, grey eyes. He, Clarisse and Kelly met in the agora, sitting around a picnic table between the basketball hoops and an elaborate fountain with laughing marble naiads spraying water in all directions.

Kelly was worried. Marc and Romilla had missed a huge gaping hole in Camp Half-Blood's daily schedule; no drill! And the implications of that were pretty huge. "Being Greeks I'm guessing you use use phalanx tactics," she began carefully.

The two counselors nodded. "When we fight as a group we do," said Clarisse. "But only my cabin and Malcolm's are any good at it. The others are pretty useless."

"That's not fair, Clarisse," Malcolm interrupted and continued to Kelly; "Apollo and Hermes cabins are excellent archers and skirmishers but not really suited to shock battle. Hephaestus' cabin are brilliant combat engineers -"

"Not to mention big and ugly," Clarisse added approvingly. "Monsters don't mess with Hephaestus' kids more'n once."

"The powers of Demeter's cabin have some pretty surprising military applications," Malcolm continued, "They really showed their stuff in the Battle of Manhattan. So did Aphrodite's cabin, they did a whole lot better than anybody would have expected."

"That's so," Clarisse agreed stiffly, her face tight with an expression Kelly had no trouble recognizing. She must have lost friends from Aphrodite's cabin in Saturn's war. Martians and Venerians always got along well.

"The other cabins are too small to fight as units," said Malcolm. "We use them as scouts and reserves."

Well wasn't that wonderful –NOT! Kelly took a deep breath and picked her words carefully. "From what I'm hearing I'm getting the idea you don't train as an army – is that right?" Both nodded. Oh Mars!

Her face must have given away more than she wanted it to because Clarisse bristled. "Hey, we beat Kronos -"

Malcolm put a hand on her arm. "I don't think we did, Clarisse, not all by ourselves. If the Romans hadn't pulled down Kronos' throne, his source of power, Luke's sacrifice might have been for nothing." He looked steadily at Kelly. "I'm thinking it took both of our camps, fighting on our different fronts, to beat the Titans. And it's going to take both of our camps to defeat the Giants too."

Kelly took a deep breath. "I think you're right." She turned to the other girl. "I don't want to insult you, Sister, I'm sure your people are brave and skilled and all the rest. But you're not soldiers the way we are.

Clarisse reddened, opened her mouth – then closed it and looked thoughtful.

"She's right, Clarisse," said Malcolm. "Camp Half-Blood teaches self-defense we aren't trained to fight wars. We're not an army, we're heroes."

Kelly sighed. "I get it, like in the old stories. Camp Jupiter is entirely different. We're the Twelfth Fulminata, Jupiter's own. We _are_ an army. We defend the Soul of Rome, the Flame of the West. Constant war against chaos and barbarism is our way.

Clarisse looked unwillingly impressed.

Malcolm fingered his chin and gave a cute, rueful grin. "Meshing the Greek way with the Roman is going to be kind of a problem."

Kelly returned the grin. "It always was."


	3. Chapter 3

"Got a little carried away did we?" Romilla looked puzzled and Kelly explained: "I was expecting a _sudatorium_ not the Julian Baths."

"Oh," the engineer laughed. She gestured towards the big muscular Greek with 'son of Vulcan' written all over him. "Jake here suggested that the _g_- the other campers might want to use it too so why not go all out?"

Kelly nodded. "Good thinking. Having seen your showers, Jake, I'd say this camp is overdue for some decent facilities."

The three of them turned back to the rambling building before them. It was fronted by a swimming hole filled from the lake and currently full of happily splashing naiads.

"They're landscaping the pool bottom for us," Romilla explained. "The naiads have been very helpful apparently they're not used to receiving sacrifices."

"Surprised the heck out of me too," said Jake. "But it sure put them in a co-operative mood."

"That was the idea," said Romilla. "With their permission we're piping lake water to the baths too, so as not to affect the water pressure for the showers and toilets."

Kelly nodded absently. Structurally the new baths were complete and the process of decorating them to look less like a cement block bunker was well underway. A team of mixed Legionaries and Greeks was slathering stucco on the façade. Inside still more Half-bloods were busily color blocking the walls in traditional Roman style. The _frigidarium_ was open to the swimming hole in front with a cold plunge pool lit by big windows at the back. The _tepidarium_ next door was lined with concrete benches that yet more campers were covering with a jigsaw of colored marble fragments. And the _caldarium_ had half a dozen hot tubs each big enough for four bathers at a time.

"Nice floors," Kelly remarked looking down at the polished gray and white terrazzo.

"The Arts and Crafts shop let us have their marble chips," said Romilla, gazing with pardonable pride upon the result. "As you can see we're down to the finishing touches. We can open for business after the games."

"Speaking of which," said Kelly, "I came down here to get you for the strategy meeting."

"Oh, right, sorry Kelly," Romilla looked guilty.

Her tribune just grinned. "Hey, I know you by now." After five years with the Fourth – the last two as CO – Kelly knew _all_ about engineers and their habit of getting way too into their projects.

…..

"The bad news is the Forest gods and spirits have some _very _bad memories of the Legion, seems we invaded back in 1864 and nearly burned the whole thing down." The officers grimaced. Valentine the Vestal –who was also a scout and cartographer - grinned and continued; "The good news is they were willing to let bygones be bygones after I made a suitable offering – apparently they don't get many sacrifices."

"Yeah, that's what the naiads said too," Romilla nodded.

"That's because they don't have contracts like our gods and spirits do," said Kelly.

She was sitting behind the table in the _principia_ tent with Vicki, her second in command on her right, and Pompey, her chief decuranus on her left, and the rest of her officers gathered round. Val unrolled her map, covering most of the table surface. The forest was a rough oval covering most of the north-western quadrant of the valley. A wide stream ran diagonally from sea mouth to its sources, two springs rising between the arena and the chariot course, dividing the forest into almost equal halves. The contours of the land, hills, stone outcroppings and the like were marked in black, the distribution and density of the vegetation in shades of green, and the monsters by tiny full color pictures. Everybody peered closely at these.

"Wow. Hydras, giant crabs, pit scorpion nests, myrmeks, sphinxes, harpies," said Felix. "These people like to live dangerously!"

"Well, it's different for them isn't it?" Patty Cato, Vicki's decuranus, pointed out. "Everybody here is a warrior, no little kids or old people to worry about."

"And nobody trying to grow a crop or make a quiet living," added Galen, the Fourth's chief medic.

"What it comes down to is this is just a training camp for apprentice heroes," said Pete Vincey, Vicki's half-brother and Cara's 2IC. "They're not trying to keep up a tradition, a whole way of life, like us."

"Or maybe they're just doing it in a different way from us," Kelly said thoughtfully. "They fought Saturn too, remember. They defended the flame. Let's keep open minds here, people. Different as they are these Greeks live in the same world as we do, with the same enemies and the same – or nearly the same – gods." She grinned. "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to kick their butts tonight!"

"Right!" everybody chorused enthusiastically.

Kelly pulled the map a little closer to her. "Where do you recommend we put our flag, Val?"

"I thought here, the Argo II's dry-dock," the scout answered putting her finger on a spot just north of the creek mouth. "If we open the sea gate we can turn it into a kind of moat."

"Good idea." Kelly nodded. "According to the rules we can only station two guards on the flag itself and they have to keep their distance so we better make them archers; your Monty and Sharon, Felix. Romilla, I'm putting you and the rest of the engineers in charge of the in depth defense. Use your imaginations."

Romilla grinned evilly. "You bet, Kelly!"

"Now for the offense –"

….

Meals at Camp Half-Blood were going to be very boring with no table hopping allowed, Kelly reflected during dinner. And having to sit up to eat just made it worse. Still, as long as the Cohort had hot baths and strong coffee she wouldn't have to worry about morale.

After the tables were cleared the conch horn sounded again and two sets of campers entered the pavilion from either side. One was Clarisse flanked by two of her siblings carrying a huge red flag ensigned with Mars' spear and boar. The other was Malcolm with two more gray eyed Minerva kids carrying a gray banner ensigned with the owl. He went straight to the Roman tables and offered Kelly the flag. When she took it into her hands it flushed Legion scarlet and the owl turned into the Fourth's horse between a Roman numeral I and V.

Chiron stamped his hoof for attention. "Tonight's capture the flag will be a _friendly _challenge to our guests of the XIIth Fulminata. The rules are: Zephyrus Creek marks the border between the team territories. You may use the entire forest. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound and or gagged. No killing or maiming _please_. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Heroes arm yourselves!" he gestured and the tables were suddenly full of celestial bronze armor and weapons. The Fourth formed up and marched back to their camp to get their own gear.

"Okay," Kelly said to her assembled troops. "You heard Master Chiron, pretty much the same rules as ours. You've all seen the map you all know your jobs. Let's show these Greeks what Romans are made of – Forward the Fourth!" The legionaries raised a cheer, pounding swords on shields.

…..

"I have a bad feeling about this," Malcolm muttered to his co-captain.

Clarisse snorted. "Stop worrying, wise-boy. We'll show those Romans what heroes can do."

"Maybe," he answered. "But somehow I don't think the usual flanking tactics are going to work against this enemy."

"Got a better idea?"

"No," he sighed. "Good luck, Clarisse."

She gave another snort and flitted off into the trees followed by her siblings from Cabin 5 and the kids from Hermes' cabin.

"I'm with you," Jake said to Malcolm. "Did you see the way that camp of theirs went up? Not to mention the baths. Those kids have got teamwork down to an art."

"And heroes fight as individuals. Oh yeah, I got a _bad_ feeling!"

The plan was for Athena, Hephaestus and Poseidon cabins to make a straight advance in phalanx with Apollo and the small cabins fanning out as skirmishers. But the frontal attack was just a feint while Clarisse led her raiding party in a wide circle around left flank to find and take the flag.

It was a good plan. It should have worked.


	4. Chapter 4

The Romans were waiting at the creek ranged in the triple line checkerboard pattern Malcom at least recognized from his reading as a standard legion formation. The campers checked sharply on the south side of the creek to stare. No question, but the legionaries were an intimidating looking bunch.

Most wore mail shirts and greaves of gray iron and helmets with big cheek-guards and a sort of flared back embossed in front with a skull and sword motif. The officers had Greek style helmets with horsehair crests and some wore glittering gold armor. They didn't have either their big shields or their heavy lances with them in fact they stood there at attention with hands hanging empty at their sides.

Malcolm had just enough time to wonder what in the gods' names they thought were doing when an officer at the far end of the line barked: "Draw!" and every one of the Romans pulled out a sword with their right hand and what looked like a gun with the left – in perfect unison. "Battle Stance!" the Roman officer roared. And all three rows struck the exact same stance at the exact same instant, gun extended sword held overhand, like they were automata or something.

Expecting the next command to be 'fire' the campers raised their shields and tightened their grips on sword and spear.

Instead the massed Romans cried "Twelfth _Fulminata!_ In thunderous unison and _then_ fired. Something like glass or brittle plastic balls shattered against the campers' shields. Acid sizzled as it burned through the bull hide and people screamed as it got to their hands hurling down their shields just as the Romans charged. Things sort of went downhill from there.

To start with phalanx tactics went out the window. Come to think of it they never had been able to hold formation against a determined attack as far as Malcolm could remember. Maybe they should work on that… anyway you can't form a shield wall with no shields. The Romans might fight en-mass like perfectly synchronized automata but the campers quickly learned they could think for themselves too. They advanced in waves, like Myrmeks or something. They didn't have it all their own way but if you managed to cut one down there was always another right behind him to get you.

A true son of Athena Malcolm didn't stop analyzing even while having his butt kicked. Roman sword work was a bit different from Greek he noted. They preferred a choppy, thrusting motion to the swinging strokes taught at Camp Half-Blood but the former suited their shorter straight blades with the tapering, needle sharp point. Other than that there were individual differences – just like with heroes. Some continued to use their acid-ball guns left handed while others dual wielded with a wide bladed dagger using it to block the campers' sword strokes. Three of the biggest legionaries were using their left fists to punch out opponents and at least four Romans were using daggers in preference to swords. Then Malcolm was tacked by one of the centurions, a very pretty blond girl with gray eyes like a daughter of Athena and a psycho-killer grin worthy of a daughter of Ares wielding both a _gladius_ and a long sword, and he had to concentrate on survival.

He sure hoped Clarisse was doing better than they were!

….

Clarisse sure hoped Malcolm was doing better than the raiding party! It was down to just her and the two Stolls, the others having been noosed by trees, swallowed by pits, lamed by spikes or knocked cold by lead tipped arrows. The north forest was three deep in death traps and it felt like they'd tripped every single one of them. But at least they'd finally found the flag.

"Ho – kay," Travis Stoll conceded. "This may be a problem."

The flag was standing on a small raft in the middle of the Argo II's flooded dry dock.

"What? We can swim -" Clarisse began.

Travis picked up a pebble and tossed it into the water which immediately started boiling like a pot on the fire. Then the large and heavily fanged head of the orange Lake Serpent emerged, shedding water and glaring ferociously like it was in a really, really bad mood.

Clarisse remembered to close her mouth. "How the Hades did they -"

"No swimming," Connor said firmly at the exact same moment.

"Durned right," his brother agreed.

"Wrong," Clarisse corrected, hefting her spear. "I'll keep OJ busy while you two -" she seemed fated never to finish a sentence. There was a sharp crack as an arrow took off the head of her spear and a pair of Romans materialized out of the trees, armed with swords and small round shields.

To say Clarisse was annoyed would be a masterpiece of understatement: "_Flaming Eyes Of Ares!_" She howled; "_Not Another Hades Be Cursed Spear!_" and with that took Maimer's broken haft to the legionaries like a Fury.

She had them literally up against a wall – or rather a tree – when the Stolls suddenly grabbed her and dragged her back. "What the Hades do you think you're doing!" she raged. Then she heard it. The distant note of the conch, the game was over. The Romans had won.

…..

"How's that feel?" Galen, the Fourth's chief medic, asked.

"Arrrr…" Clarisse mumbled into the towel covering the massage table.

"I'll take that as a 'good'."

Greeks and Romans alike were sautéing in the steamy warmth of the new _tepidarium._ Sitting or lying on the marble faced benches in an atmosphere of drowsy fellowship that had restored even Clarisse to good humor. Of course the massage was helping too.

"I may not slaughter you guys after all," she conceded sleepily.

"Betcha she could too," said Sharon, one of the two Flag guards. "Monty and I would be dead if the horn hadn't sounded just in the nick of time."

Turning her head Clarisse gave her erstwhile opponent a genuinely friendly grin. "I dunno, you were giving me a lot of trouble."

"Not enough!" Sharon and her partner Monty said in fervent unison.

Malcolm opened his eyes. "One on one, we're pretty evenly matched," he observed. "But you guys got us licked in the teamwork department."

"Like I said before, you Greeks are heroes," Kelly answered. "We Romans are soldiers. Discipline has always been our edge – all too often our only edge." Every legionary in the room grimaced remembering the Feast of Fortuna – and Mount Othrys.

Vicki, farther down the bench, leaned forward. "How did you guys manage to hold off Saturn's legions?"

It was the Greeks' turn to grimace. "Barely," Malcolm said grimly. "We bought time. Luckily it was enough time."

"Thermopylae," said Kelly.

"Pretty much," Malcolm agreed.

"Hey!" Clarisse sat up. "The Spartans _lost_ at Thermopylae. We won!"

"I meant the strategic situation was comparable," Kelly said quickly, "Badly outnumbered, the enemy flanking you in all directions – that sort of thing."

"That pretty much describes it," Malcolm said even more grimly. "Doesn't it Clarisse?"

"Yeah," she let Galen press her back down on the table though she didn't seem to be enjoying the massage quite so much now.

"The baths are where we _relax_, Vicki," Felix complained. "Don't kill the mood."

"Sorry," she shrugged. "It's just I've been wondering ever since Percy told us about the Greek side of the war. Taking Mt. Othrys was almost more than even the legion could pull off. Your job had have been worse, even with the advantage of a defensive position, given your smaller numbers."

"I don't know about 'worse'," Malcolm said slowly. "_Different_ sure, but assailing Kronos' stronghold had to have been pretty desperate even with two hundred of you."

"Desperate," Kelly echoed ruefully. "Good word for it. But we had more than two hundred. We had the Veterans with us, and we had Jason."

Unexpectedly Malcolm grinned. "We had the Party Ponies, Ares Cabin, Hades, Poseidon... Every time it looked like we were finished and about to go under _somebody_ showed up to save the day.

"With us it was the enemy that kept getting reinforcements," said Felix and gave Kelly a broad wink. "Then we had a bit of luck."

"A lot of luck as it turned out," she agreed.

"Always be polite to strange ladies," Felix solemnly advised the Greeks and winked again. "You never know when she might be my Mom in disguise."

"I _hate _it when gods show up in disguise," Kelly grumbled. "It's worse than a pop quiz!"

"And the stakes are much higher," Vicki agreed.


End file.
